| We built an industry based upon selling out... The first 50 percent of the tickets pay for expenses like the stagehands and the marketing, the ushers, and the rest and the venue, and the other 50 percent is shared between the artists and the promoter—so if all you’re going to sell is 50 percent of tickets, nobody’s making any money. | | |
| |  | Before the plague: Crowdsurfing during Slaves' set at Glastonbury, June 30, 2019.
(Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images) |
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| | | “We built an industry based upon selling out... The first 50 percent of the tickets pay for expenses like the stagehands and the marketing, the ushers, and the rest and the venue, and the other 50 percent is shared between the artists and the promoter—so if all you’re going to sell is 50 percent of tickets, nobody’s making any money.” | |
| | If You Cure It, They Will Come
Top 10 ways to get live music back in clubs, theaters and arenas, ranked:
1 (tie). Eliminate Covid-19
1 (tie). Vaccinate everyone
3. Mask mandates + social distancing + greatly reduced capacity + retrofitted ventilation systems + greatly increased ticket prices to make up for the lost capacity and the ventilation work
4. OK, maybe try that minus the retrofitting
5. Wait for warm weather, lock the doors and use the parking lot instead
6-10. Not sure
11. Government edict
It's always easiest to start at the bottom, innit? In Texas, the governor just went for it this week, with mixed results across the state's varied music scenes. In Austin, the state's, if not the world's, live music capital, the response to GOV. GREG ABBOTT lifting of all restrictions starting next week was a thousand thumbs down, from club owners and musicians alike. JACK MCFADDEN, talent buyer for ACL LIVE and 3TEN, said he's worried about losing some socially distanced summer shows that he's already booked if the state's Covid numbers start going back up. The CONTINENTAL CLUB said it will remain closed. KATHY VALENTINE of the GO-GO's called the governor a "reckless pandering fool."
But in Fort Worth, your tickets to MIRANDA LAMBERT's sold-out run of limited-capacity, masks-required shows in April at BILLY BOB'S TEXAS have been upgraded, or downgraded, depending on your point of view, to masks-recommended-but-optional shows. Capacity remains limited, at least for now. "We will continue to monitor the federal, state and local guidelines and adjust accordingly in the days and weeks ahead," the club wrote on its website.
In New York, beleaguered GOV. ANDREW CUOMO went for my #4, telling venues they can reopen April 2 at greatly reduced capacity, even though the coronavirus is spreading faster in New York City right now than in most of the country. New York's culture industry has been decimated by the pandemic and needs all help it can get, and some arts presenters are ready to accept the governor's invitation, but not all. Among the holdouts: Broadway productions and a number of music venues, which share an economic need to operate at close to capacity. Staging shows in rooms operating at 20 percent capacity is "untenable," BOWERY BALLROOM and MERCURY LOUNGE owner MICHAEL SWIER told the New York Times. (This is a great explainer, from Rolling Stone's SAMANTHA HISSONG, on the unworkable math of booking shows for sparse audiences.)
That doesn't mean shows, even some festivals, aren't being booked at all, but in the US, England and elsewhere that generally means this summer or later, with promoters and other insiders continuing to debate what exactly a realistic timeline looks like. There's growing confidence, the Wall Street Journal's ANNE STEELE reports (paywall), that outdoor shows will be viable sometime this summer, with indoor shows conceivable in the fall. LIVE NATION president JOE BERCHTOLD tells Steele the outdoor amphitheater season could extend deeper into the fall in typically does: "We expect people will be willing to put on their puffers to enjoy some shows and make up for lost time."
But for him and virtually everyone in the business, the timeline depends on reigning in the pandemic and getting more shots in more arms. I'm neither a politician nor an epidemiologist, but it seems to me that's the part government officials should be spending their time on. Cure first, dance later.
(Meanwhile, this small LOL just in from Reading, England, where organizers of the already-sold-out Reading half of the READING AND LEEDS FESTIVAL may have forgotten one tiny detail.)
Dot Dot Dot
KINGS OF LEON's album WHEN YOU WILL SEE YOURSELF will be released Friday via all the usual streaming and download sites but also at the NFT site YELLOWHEART, will there will be multiple NFT versions of the album, each with different extra perks. An NFT auction will feature six "golden tickets" whose owners will be guaranteed four front-row seats to every Kings of Leon tour going forward, with a personal driver and other goodies included... I co-sign this warning from BANDIER PROGRAM director BILL WERDE to anyone who's added an NFT slide to their PowerPoints in the past 72 hours... And this related plea from STEM's MILANA RABKIN LEWIS... IRVING AZOFF's ICONIC ARTIST GROUP scoops up DAVID CROSBY's publishing and recorded music rights for his solo career as well as all of his groups. Not included in the deal: His tweets... Every single song in your pocket?... FACEBOOK music video streams now count on the BILLBOARD charts.
Rest in Peace
MARK JOSEPHSON, an influential enrepreneur who founded the record pool ROCKPOOL and co-founded the NEW MUSIC SEMINAR... Music marketing exec DOUG SMILEY.
| | | Matty Karas (@troubledoll), curator |
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| | don kirshner's rock concert |
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|  | VICE |
| | How Pandora Won Its Royalty Battle But Lost the War to Spotify | | by Tyler Hayes | | Pandora found a brilliant loophole win its fight with the recording industry, but it tied the company's future into a knot. | |
 | Stereogum |
| | Are NFTs The Future Of Digital Music Or Just Crypto Snobbery? | | by Arielle Gordon | | By investing in NFTs, creators, curators, gallerists, and other stakeholders in the art world are attempting to create and capture the value of “digital scarcity.” | |
 | Music x |
| | Music NFTs: why buy them? | | by Maarten Walraven-Freeling | | The more I read and hear about NFTs the more sense it makes to me for artists to get in on the act and find a new way to broaden their revenues (here's how artists can go about creating and selling an NFT). But what about the buyer's perspective? Why should they get in on it too? | |
 | Polygon |
| | TikTok’s emo revival emerged from the creative chaos of quarantine | | by Ryan Broderick | | When nostalgia, fashion, gossip, and trend-chasing collide. | |
 | Los Angeles Times |
| | Dua Lipa is pop's new superstar. She's also a bit of a mystery | | by Mikael Wood | | Dua Lipa is nominated for six Grammy Awards, second only to Beyoncé. But unlike the music of many of her chart peers, her songs resist a closely personal read. | |
 | Dweller |
| | How History, Wealth and Nepotism Determine Access in South Africa’s Segregated Dance Music Industry | | by Mandy Alexander | | What started out as an investigation to find out how access to music equipment may hinder growth amongst marginalised DJs and music producers, resulted in me discovering how South Africa's cities' segregation plays a massive role in how different genres of music are heard. | |
| rantnrave:// But the collaborators can only be so far away from each other, because physics | |
|  | The New Yorker |
| | The Jazz Pianist Using a Computer Program to Play with Other Musicians in Quarantine | | by Fred Kaplan | | Using the software JackTrip, the Brooklyn-based musician and amateur coder Dan Tepfer has been holding live-streamed concerts with jazz musicians elsewhere on the East Coast. | |
 | Austin 360 |
| | Austin music scene reacts to Texas Gov. Abbott lifting COVID-19 restrictions, mask mandate | | by Peter Blackstock and Deborah Sengupta Stith | | Austin's music community, which has struggled over the past year with shuttered venues and stagnant tourism, was swift to react with anger. | |
 | strategy+business |
| | Fender hits the right notes | | by Bob Woods | | CEO Andy Mooney riffs on the boom in guitar sales during COVID-19 and rethinking business models for the post-pandemic world. | |
 | GQ |
| | 10 Great Bunny Wailer Songs: A Musical History | | by Rob Kenner | | The last original Wailer, alongside Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, has died aged 73. This playlist goes from his early ska years through to his favorite dancehall cut. | |
|  | Penny Fractions |
| | The Rise of the Digital Music Distributor | | by David Turner | | What function do businesses like STEM, CDBaby, DistroKid and Ingrooves serve within music’s larger political economy? | |
 | BBC Sounds |
| | The Price of Song | | by John Wilson | | John Wilson investigates the value of the songs that provide the soundtracks to our lives. | |
 | The New York Times |
| | He Was Born Into Slavery, but Achieved Musical Stardom | | by Anthony Tommasini | | The life and work of Thomas Wiggins, who toured as “Blind Tom,” has been given more attention in recent years. | |
 | Variety |
| | ‘Tina’ Review: A Cathartic Look at the Extraordinary Life and Artistry of Tina Turner | | by Owen Gleiberman | | Her story has become mythology, and this documentary tells it powerfully, with an understanding of her genius. | |
| GQ |
| | A Guide to the Tekashi 6ix9ine Documentary Universe | | by Will Schube | | There are now no less than three movies, TV series and podcasts about the rapper. Which one should you watch? | |
 | Vox |
| | How Dolly Parton became a secular American saint | | by Constance Grady | | Why everyone loves Dolly now. | |
 | Holler |
| | In Conversation: Darius Rucker | | by Kelly Sutton | | Following his most recent no.1, 'Beer and Sunshine' -- his tenth of his solo career -- Darius Rucker talks to Kelly Sutton about finally moving to Nashville, writing new music and how the ultimate goal in life is simple happiness. | |
| Los Angeles Times |
| | The shutdown dried up their work. Now mariachis are busy playing COVID funerals | | by Steve Saldivar | | The shutdown dried up their work. Now mariachis are busy playing COVID funerals. | |
 | I Care If You Listen |
| | Gender Equity or White Supremacy? Who's Really Championed in the Women’s Music Movement | | by Elizabeth de Brito | | Elizabeth de Brito considers the intersection of gender equity and racial equity in the recent push to promote music by women composers. | |
 | iHeartRadio |
| | Here's The Thing: Barry Gibb Keeps the Bee Gees Stayin’ Alive | | by Alec Baldwin, Barry Gibb and Here's The Thing | | Barry talks to Alec about his songwriting, fame, and family. | |
| | | Music | Media | Sports | Fashion | Tech | | “REDEF is dedicated to my mother, who nurtured and encouraged my interest in
everything and slightly regrets the day she taught me to always ask ‘why?’” | |  | | Jason Hirschhorn | | CEO & Chief Curator |
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